points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third. Practice and qualifying Two practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—both on Friday. The first session lasted 110 minutes, and the Friday afternoon session ran for 80 minutes. During the first practice session, Greg Biffle was the quickest with a time of 1:12.205. Hamlin and Paul Menard followed in the second and third positions, but were ahead of Burton and Kurt Busch in fourth and fifth. In the Friday afternoon practice session, Biffle remained the quickest with a fastest lap time of 1:11.092. Juan Pablo Montoya followed in the second position, less than a second faster than Marcos Ambrose and Kurt Busch in third and fourth. Harvick placed fifth with a fastest lap time three-tenths of a second off Biffle's pace. Tony Stewart, who won this race in 2009, only managed sixth. During qualifying, forty-six cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Carl Edwards clinched his fifth career pole position, with a time of 1:10.882. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Jamie McMurray. Montoya qualified third, A. J. Allmendinger took fourth, and Kurt Busch started fifth, after being scored fourth in the practice sessions. The three drivers that did not qualify were J. J. Yeley, Dave Blaney, and Tony Ave. Race summary The race, the twenty-second out of a total of thirty-six in the season, began at 1 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN. Conditions were sunny with a high of , making the track potentially slippery. Dan Fife, of Bentley Creek Weslyan Church, began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the invocation. Next, American Idol runner-up, Bo Bice performed the national anthem, and Heluva Good! senior vice president of operations, Scott Blake gave the command for drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Kyle Busch had to go to pit lane because of problems with his race car. Edwards held the lead going through the first corner with McMurray behind him. Going through the esses McMurray ran Edwards off track, but Edwards remained the leader. Edwards vacated the first position was filled by McMurray after Edwards reported that his car was tight. On lap 5, Biffle moved into the fourth position, as Elliott Sadler made a scheduled pit stop for fuel. One lap later, Montoya passed McMurray for the first